Wingman
by Wandergirl108
Summary: Zaveid is taking care of young Dezel when he comes across a group of humans trying to establish a new town near Igraine…and a single female seraph sworn to be their guardian. Oneshot. M for explicit content between Zaveid and a woman - sorry, Zaveid x Dezel fans, but I'd bet money this is more true to what their relationship was like.


"Whoa there, boy, watch out!"

Zaveid just barely managed to catch a rambunctious Dezel before he slipped and plummeted from one of the many cliffs of Biroclef Ridge.

"You gotta watch your step," he chided the child. "If you fall, it'll take a lot more power than you've got at your age to keep you from splattering all over the rocks. Even us wind seraphim can't fly."

"Then why do you always call me your 'little wingman'?" Dezel grumbled, serious as ever.

"Well, because you're the little man I took under my wing," Zaveid chuckled, ruffling his charge's shaggy, green-tipped hair.

Dezel growled, trying to jerk his head away; he hated being treated like a kid, despite being one even by human standards. Then there was another growl, this one from a different source, and Zaveid looked up and grinned.

"Right on time," he smirked, whipping a pendulum at the mountain troll hellion that lumbered towards them.

Another pendulum flew beside his, though this one missed the target entirely.

"Focus on the stone at the end," Zaveid instructed the child who was desperately trying to aid in the fight. "That's the only part that matters. Doesn't matter how much cord you gotta let out."

The boy tried again, and this time his weapon connected, though not quite forcefully enough to deter the malevolent beast; luckily, its attention was on the actual threat, who had already smacked it a fair bit by now.

"Good!" Zaveid called from across the small battlefield they'd been allotted. "Just like that!"

He kept the monster distracted as Dezel got some more practice in, careful not to crush it too quickly. There wasn't much malevolence in this one, but it was important that Dezel not face any real threats until he could at least control the movement of his pendulums. After a few minutes, Zaveid drew Siegfried, loaded a shot, and blasted the hellion back to hell, feeling the tension in his chest ease slightly as the malevolence was annihilated - not much, but enough.*

"You're doing pretty good, kiddo," he told Dezel as he put the tool away. "Keep this up and I'll be able to start teaching you seraphic artes soon."

"When will you let me handle Siegfried?" Dezel demanded.

"Never," Zaveid answered. "Siegfried's mine, and I need it." _For my oath…_*

The kid who barely came up past Zaveid's knee growled and ran on ahead. Keeping a careful eye on him, Zaveid followed, smiling to himself. Despite their similar hair, the little guy couldn't be more different from the wind seraph he'd decided to latch onto as his mentor and father figure, and yet Zaveid couldn't help but respect him just a bit for his determination and fortitude, even if he was rash sometimes. Eizen had claimed to sense a curse similar to his own Reaper's Curse within the boy, but so far Zaveid hadn't seen any evidence of that, unless being hopelessly serious was a curse. Which, he supposed, it was, in a way.

"Hey, you hear that?" The sudden call from up ahead startled Zaveid from his reminiscence, and he jogged to catch up with his charge.

Where Dezel had stopped, Zaveid was able to make out the sound of voices, several of them, as well as…

"Huh," he remarked as he read the wind to see what lay ahead. "Now that's interesting…"

"It's this way!" Dezel exclaimed, charging forward and up the narrow ledges they had yet to traverse.

"Slow down!" Zaveid shouted, running after him, but of course Dezel didn't listen.

Up some slopes and around some bends, Zaveid finally managed to grab hold of Dezel's little arm just as they came within sight of several workers laying bricks and mortar to build a wall around an alcove in the cliffs.

"Humans," Zaveid told Dezel. "Remember, kiddo, they can't see or hear us without resonance."

"Yeah, I know," Dezel grumbled, pulling his arm free. "But I wanna get a closer look."

"Me too," Zaveid admitted. "This is an odd place for a town. Just…be careful, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah."

The two of them cautiously made their way around the half-finished barrier, and were met with the sight of maybe two dozen humans all laying out tents and tarps on the ground. Zaveid frowned; this area was right outside the entrance to Lord Musiphe's shrine, Igraine, but most humans didn't know about that - more likely, they were here to mine the vermillion ore formed from the Great Lord's artes over the centuries. _Nothing I can do about that,_ he told himself. _Humans will do what they do, and besides, I have no allegiance to Musiphe._

His thoughts were cut short when Dezel darted into the cluster of settlers, headed straight for a fire pit the humans were using to cook what looked like freshly-killed birds. "Hold it!" Zaveid shouted after the kid, running forward and just managing to catch Dezel before he grabbed a sizzling piece of meat. "You can't just steal food from humans!" he admonished.

"But I'm hungry," Dezel grumbled. "It's not like they can get mad at something they can't see."

"That doesn't make stealing from them okay," Zaveid sighed. "Look, let's just wait a bit and see what they do, alright? The sun's going down, and if they have any faith in us, they'll probably leave out some kind of offering before they turn in for the night in the hopes that it'll help their little operation prosper or something. We can eat from that."

"You don't know they'll do that," Dezel pointed out.

"It's polite to wait and see," Zaveid stated. "If they need to be reminded that we exist, we can steal their leftovers, but let's give them a chance first."

"But I'm hungry _now_!"

"Excuse me…"

A sudden voice from behind them made both wind seraphim turn their heads. They were met with the sight of a woman with black-tipped maroon hair and a maroon-patterned seraph robe. _A fire seraph,_ Zaveid thought, casting an appreciative eye over what he could see of her form, though of course her modest outfit left a lot to the imagination. What he could see was relatively plain, but hey, beggars couldn't be choosers; at least she had a figure.

The fire seraph smiled at them politely. "Hello," she said.

"Hey, baby," Zaveid smirked, letting go of Dezel and standing up. "You the guardian seraph around here?"

"I am," she nodded. "Were you hoping to take the position?"

"Nah, we're just passing through," Zaveid dismissed. "We had no idea humans were trying to start up a settlement here until we came by. Say, you wouldn't happen to know if a seraph could get a bite to eat around here, would you?" he asked her. "My boy here's feeling peckish." He reached down and ruffled Dezel's hair fondly, ignoring the way the child growled at him.

"Oh my, aren't you a cute little thing?" the woman exclaimed, crouching down to meet Dezel's bright green eyes; as was usual for those of the female persuasion, the sight of a child had melted her heart in an instant. "What's your name, sweetie?"

"My name's Dezel," Dezel replied, "and don't call me 'sweetie'."

"Watch your manners, kiddo," Zaveid chided. He offered the fire seraph a crooked grin. "You'll have to excuse him, he's a bit of a rascal."

But this only made her smile even more brightly, and Zaveid suppressed a triumphant grin. _The kid does it again._ "You say you're hungry, Dezel?" the fire seraph asked the boy. "Don't worry, these people are very devout; I'm sure they'll offer us the finest of their catch today. They always do!"

"You don't mind sharing, do you, sweetheart?" Zaveid asked her.

"Not at all!" she assured him. "You're both more than welcome to stay for dinner."

"Can we stay, Zaveid?" Dezel asked, looking up at his guardian.

"What do you say first?" Zaveid asked pointedly.

"Thanks," Dezel mumbled at the woman, then he looked up at Zaveid again. "So can we stay?"

"Of course!" Zaveid replied brightly. "We'll have to leave by dawn, though. Remember, us wind seraphim don't stick around."

"Yeah yeah," Dezel muttered, and he ran forward to hover over the dinner preparations, encouraging the humans who were entirely deaf to the child pestering them to hurry up.

"Oh, he's so precious!" the fire seraph said, her hands clasped in front of her chest as she stood up and turned to Zaveid. "How did you end up with him?"

"Me and a buddy of mine saved him from a bunch of hellions a couple years ago," Zaveid explained. "Soon as he saw me, he latched on to me as his idol, so I took him under my wing. I've been doing my best to teach him to take care of himself so he doesn't end up in that situation again…or worse, you know? He's learning pretty fast."

"It's not every seraph who would willingly take the role of a parent," the fire seraph remarked, and Zaveid didn't miss the faint blush creeping into her cheeks in the light of the sunset.

"Aw, 'parent' is such a strong word," Zaveid said, waving a hand. "I'm more of a big brother type, doncha think?"

"No, not at all," she stated, shaking her head. "I've seen humans who were less gentle and caring with their own offspring."

"Hey, if a human can't take care of their own kid, they should be ashamed of themselves," Zaveid told her. "There's nothing in this world more precious or more important than a child."

She blinked.

"A friend of mine used to say that," Zaveid added after a beat, his smile growing strained for just a moment as he remembered, then shoved the memory away. "And she was right, y'know."

"Yes…yes, I see," the woman nodded, and she was definitely blushing now as she met his eyes.

"What's your name, babe?" Zaveid asked, letting his voice deepen slightly.

"Forsea," she replied.

"Forsea," Zaveid repeated with a winning smile. "Nice to meet you. The name's Zaveid, and you already know my boy Dezel." He gestured at the little wind seraph still hounding the humans to cook faster.

"It's nice to meet you, Zaveid," Forsea told him. "Both of you." Her eyes drifted to his bare chest, following the wavy tattoos that crossed it, and he smirked.

"Like what you see?" he purred.

She turned a mouthwatering shade of red. "Um…your markings," she stammered, jerking her eyes back up to meet his. "Do they mean anything?"

"Not really," he replied with a shrug. "It's hard to capture the wind in an image; this was the best I could do. But you already knew I was a wind seraph. You're a fire seraph, right?" he added.

"Yes," she nodded. "Not a very powerful one, but enough to grant the area my blessing while these people work to establish a village here."

"You don't have a problem with them building a town right next to Igraine?" Zaveid asked.

Forsea jolted, surprise lighting in her dark eyes.

"I know about the shrines," he told her with a grin. "It's not like they're a big secret, at least not for us seraphim. But these humans don't know, do they?"

"No," she replied. "I…am not sure why they want to establish a settlement here. But, I will aid them however I can."

"Must get lonely, being the only seraph around," Zaveid remarked. "Can anyone here see you?"

"No, but it's okay," Forsea assured him, though he could hear the undercurrent in her voice that told him he was right. _Jackpot._ "These are good people, and I wouldn't want them to be without a guardian seraph."

"I could never settle down like that," he chuckled. "You can't tether the wind. But hey, I've got nothing but respect for someone with the patience for that kind of thing."

"You seem quite tethered to your son," Forsea remarked.

"We blow around untethered together," Zaveid shrugged, "and I told ya, he's not really my son. Seraphim don't have sons."

Before she could argue her point, a chorus of startled gasps from the humans nearby drew both their attention. Dezel had lifted a perfectly-cooked bird in his hands, about to take a bite, though the humans' alarm was enough to stop him from digging in.

"Whoops!" Zaveid darted over to where the boy knelt. "Put that down, kiddo."

"They offered it to me," Dezel protested. "To the seraphim."

"Then don't just lift it like that," Zaveid told him, and he reached over, putting a hand on the golden-brown meat and pouring mana into it until it vibrated in tune with his essence, making it invisible to those who lacked resonance. "You have to make it part of you first," he explained as the human onlookers gasped again at the vanishing food. "If you just start taking bites out of it while they can still see it, they'll think it's the work of daemons. As far as they know, we don't eat like they do."

"Sorry," Dezel muttered. "Can I eat now?"

"Yep," Zaveid replied, "dig in. Spare a little for our lovely hostess, though, won't you?" He looked up and winked at Forsea.

"Sure…You can have some too," Dezel grumbled, tearing off a strip and handing it to Zaveid.

"Don't mind if I do," Zaveid chuckled, taking the offering.

The three seraphim shared the meal, completely unbeknownst to the feasting humans surrounding them, though Zaveid wasn't really hungry for food; he made subtle, flirting passes at Forsea occasionally, just light enough that the child with them wouldn't ask questions, but was careful to fuss over his charge whenever he had an excuse. Darkness fell, and Dezel yawned. For a seraph, the kid acted oddly human sometimes, and Zaveid 'borrowed' a spare tarp from the humans to wrap the boy in as he settled down.

"Sleep well, kiddo," he told Dezel. "We'll leave before dawn."

"Yeah, yeah," Dezel yawned sleepily, turning over.

Zaveid ruffled his hair, then stood up and turned to face Forsea. _Showtime._

"You're so good with him, " she sighed, almost dreamily.

"Yeah, well, I try," Zaveid shrugged. "He's a good kid." He made a show of stretching languidly, then met Forsea's eyes. "Do you sleep, sweetheart?" he asked, edging his tone with just the right amount of huskiness to make her blush.

"I…sometimes," she answered hesitantly. "Not tonight, I don't think. You?"

"Not too much," he replied with a lopsided smile. "But I can see the appeal in getting some rest."

"There's, um, an opening in the passage to Igraine," Forsea told him. "The people here are using it for storage right now, and there are some spare blankets that make for a nice nest."

"Sounds cozy," Zaveid remarked, his grin widening, and he stalked up to her until their faces were maybe two inches apart. "Care to join me?"

"Um." She flushed deeply enough to be visible in the moonlight, but didn't pull away from him. "I, uh…"

"Come on, babe, live a little," he told her; "don't worry about my boy, he's already asleep, and will be for a few hours. Try doing something selfish for once."

He touched her arm lightly and met her dark eyes for a few carefully-calculated seconds, then turned and walked for the cave that led to Igraine, already anticipating the sound of her following him. It took ten steps before the sound of her footsteps joined his, and he quickened his pace, forcing her to run. It wasn't hard to find the makeshift bed she'd mentioned, and as soon as he reached it, he stopped short and turned, catching her as she nearly bowled into him and clamping his mouth over hers in a passionate kiss. Forsea gave a startled exclamation at the back of her throat, then kissed him back, clumsily, her lips inexperienced and sloppy, but Zaveid didn't mind - he had more than enough experience for two. He moved his tongue around her mouth in a slow, sensual dance, then pulled his lips off hers and kissed his way down to her jawline. Forsea moaned loudly.

"Shh," he hushed, and it took every ounce of self-control he had not to grin as he played his trump card. "Too loud, and you might wake my boy. Wouldn't want him to hear you mewling and come running in here thinking you're in danger, a kid shouldn't have to see that." That had actually almost happened once, but Zaveid had managed to shout a lie that kept Dezel from being exposed to things not meant for innocent young eyes, and the subsequent concern about ending up in a similar situation had only ever led to good things.

Predictably, this one final show of consideration on Zaveid's part for his young charge caused Forsea to completely melt into putty in his arms. With practiced efficiency, Zaveid unbuckled the belts around his wrists that held his weapons in place and tossed them aside, then kicked off his boots. Clothes hit the dirt floor, piece by piece, until only Forsea's simple undergarments stood between their bodies. Pulling her against him, he tumbled into the mound of blankets, rolling so that he was on top of her.

"You ever done this before, sweetheart?" he asked against the soft skin of her throat.

"N-No," she whimpered.

He'd figured as much; the nervous, clumsy way her fingers scrabbled at his back said it all. Besides, she'd seemed like the type - one of those pure, reserved seraph ladies that had been such tough nuts to crack before he'd adopted Dezel. That wasn't too much of a problem; maybe most seraphim got by without such things, but Zaveid could have written a book on the art of the bedroom - and it didn't hurt that he'd read several. Still, he had to ask… "You sure you're okay with your first time being with a scoundrel you'll never see again?"

"_Yes_!" the fire seraph gasped.

It was the exclamation of someone who'd lost all capacity for rational thought, someone who might have given the same question a different answer not ten minutes earlier. Still, he'd done his duty by asking, and she had answered; any disappointment she felt when he left would be her own fault at this point, not his. In a few swift motions, he divested her of the rest of her clothing, leaving her bare, then thrust himself inside her, kissing her hard enough to muffle her cry.

They moved together, hot mouths and sweaty skin, Zaveid's motions sure and confident from experience while Forsea couldn't do much more than writhe under his touch. To her credit, she tried, which was more than could be said for some first-timers, but it didn't really matter in the end. All that mattered was the sweet sensation of her against him, his member buried deep inside her wet, hot body. Stroking her thighs, kissing her breasts, catching her moans with his mouth when she got too vocal, he relished the sensations that never got old: his seraphic body completely swamped in pleasure, the remains of his heart completely cold and dead, the void where his soul had once been completely empty and numb* - just the way he liked it. It was the closest thing to peace, to heaven, he would ever know, given what he'd become centuries earlier…*

Eventually, after several delicious surges of release, he wore her out, and she fell unconscious as he pulled out of her and rolled over. He lay there with her for a while, enjoying the afterglow and hovering at the edge of unconsciousness - a far more restful state than real sleep usually was for him. Then, he carefully got up and dressed himself before walking away. Would he ever see her again? He didn't know, and he didn't care; he didn't look back.

Outside, Dezel was still asleep, and Zaveid stood over him until he woke - which was just before dawn, as was usual for the tiny seraph.

"Zaveid?" Dezel asked as he freed himself from his makeshift blanket, which Zaveid put back where he'd found it, taking back the mana he'd imbued it with so the humans could find it again. "Let's get going."

"You sleep well?" Zaveid questioned.

"Yeah," Dezel answered. "How about you?"

"Oh, I had a good sleep," Zaveid chuckled. "I'm all refreshed and ready to go." He started walking for the exit, and Dezel trotted up beside him. "Don't you worry about me…" He reached down and ruffled Dezel's hair. "…my little wingman."

* * *

***All bits marked with asterisks are foreshadowing for reveals in my Berseria x Zestiria crossover project, Tales of Corazoria; as of the posting of part 22, these bits should make sense for anyone who is up-to-date Tales of Corazoria, but if you haven't read it, don't worry about the bits in question.**


End file.
